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All right, amen. Romans chapter 13, the great chapter on human government. So look, the title of the sermon this morning is, should be a question, right? And that is, are we caving to the government? Are we caving into the government right now? I've gotten a lot of anonymous emails from people recently, especially in the last couple of weeks. They've really picked up the last few days, actually. I haven't had time to go through, to respond to them all and I will as I get time. And I hope if anybody in here that's listening online that knows us, you don't have to have, I hope you don't feel like you have to have an anonymous email account to ask us a question. Okay. Because I'm not going to yell at you, you know, and then the questions that these guys are asking are honest. I can tell they just want to know, you know, what my thoughts and opinions and things like that are. And to be quite honest with you, you know, I do have opinions about the coronavirus, but the The problem with opinions is that they're subject to change, right? Based on facts because opinions should never take priority over a fact. So tomorrow I learned, you know, some new fact about this thing that I didn't know I'm going to have to change my opinion. Right. And so that's why I've been saying from day one, it's better to err on the side of caution. It's better because look, we all know there are people hell bent on calling the population. Okay. I do have my opinions about this. I have my skepticisms, but I'm hesitant to really put those out there on the YouTube world because like I said, I don't want to be eating a plate of crow later, right? So I'm not going to take this hard stance and be like, everybody else sucks because this is what I think and you're all wrong. I'm not going to do that, right? I'm going to run church and uh, you know, one of the questions that comes up, well, how long are you going to put up with this? And as of right now, I'm not sure. Okay. I'm not really sure I'll make that decision. And when I do, you'll just know because there'll be people here. I probably won't even make a video about it, right? I don't have to tell everybody out there in YouTube land what we do as a church, right? Um, you know, my job is to run the church the way the Bible says, and I'm not in this thing to get a bunch of glory and to, um, try to, I don't try to elevate myself above anybody else. That's, that's ridiculous, right? We're, we're here for the same reason that a lot of our friend churches are. Some of them have different opinions. Amen. I don't care. I'm not going to fight about it. It's not worth it. I don't have time for that. It's not the kind of person that I am. I'm just going to continue on with the mission here. So my goal right now is to figure out how can we work and be diplomatic in this thing and try to find some common ground and still go forward with the mission. And I will be honest with you, I'm not willing to play this game for too much longer. Okay. That's just, uh, I'll just go ahead and say that right now and you'll know when that time is. All right. But the sermon this morning is really designed to, uh, provide some understanding with what the role of a Christian is in government. What is our role? Because the Bible is very clear here, what our role is, and we're going to go through that and we're going to spend some time talking about that. And I think that when you have that real understanding of what your role is in government, what your role is as a Bible believing Christian, it's going to make you better at your job. It's going to make things easier. It's going to make the decisions that you have to make much easier. I mean, think about it. The more that you know of what your boss expects of you at work, the better of an employee that you can be. The more that you, uh, kids know about your parents' expectations and how they are and how they want things, the more you can understand that the better of a, of a child of the better of a blessing you can be to your family, right? This isn't anything new. And so we're going to go through these things, but I do want to address just some, some basic things before we get to that. And the first one is this here. Here's the first statement that I want to make this morning is this. We're subject to the higher powers, but not exclusively the government, right? We are subject to higher powers, but not exclusively the government. Romans chapter 13 looked down at verse number one. It says, let every soul be subject unto the higher powers for there is no power, but of God, the powers that be are ordained of God. This chapter is very, very crystal clear that God has ordained human government, but the question becomes, uh, does that mean that God's ordained every single thing that they do? And the answer is no. The answer is no. They have, you know, what right, honestly does the government have telling us to do anything other than what their role is laid out here in this chapter, which is to punish evil doers, right? Those powers are ordained by God. But if you notice that phrase there, it says higher powers, right? When I look at that as a former military person, I see a chain of command, right? What the Fox news Baptist does is he looks at that and says, uncle Sam, right? Uncle Sam, here I am, sir. Yes, sir. I will do whatever you want me to do. Jew. Yes, Jew. Right. That's the, that's, that's the old saying from back in the day. Jew. Yes, Jew. I'll do whatever you tell me to do. I'll even shine your shoes by two, right? You know, some people have that attitude that they'll just, I mean, they'll just do whatever the government says. Oh, you can't go so any, no problem. You know, I'm going to, well, we won't do it, you know? Uh, oh, I got to, you know, I got to watch what I say about, uh, the alphabet people. Oh, no problem. I'll take all my stuff offline and I'll just, just, just play it safe because that's what the government says. You know, that's not biblical. Okay. We ought to obey God rather than men. God is the highest power. So what his word lays out for us to do supersedes anything that the government has to do. And again, the question will always come back to, especially right now. Well, what about the coronavirus? What about the lockdown? Are you caving into the government by complying with that? And the answer is no, but we're going to answer that, uh, later on in the sermon here, uh, turn to first Peter chapter number two, first Peter chapter number two. And so again, I just want to say the statement again, we are subject to the higher powers, but that's not exclusively the government. Okay. We do need to understand that God's word will always supersede the government. For example, let's say the mayor of Boise says no more church, but governor little says, Hey, you can have church. Who are we going to listen to? Well, we're going to listen to the governor cause he's higher than the mayor. You know, let's say they both say no more church ever because bill Gates says he wants everybody vaccinated. Um, before, you know, we could do this, well, we're going to listen to God because I'm not going to put something unclean into my body. That's, you know, that's just foolish. Um, and, and again, going back to, you know, some of these skepticism is like doctors are the third leading cause of the U S do you really think that I trust them over this issue? I mean, let's get real here, right? Do you think I trust the CDC? Do you think the center of disease control really has your best interest in heart or is there another gender? Of course. Right. So I'm not going to fully rely on them and there's all sorts of garbage and stuff out there, but you know, at the same time, I'm not going to let that, you know, those opinions that I have about those things, you know, jeopardize the safety of our church members, right? Because what's higher than that are these billionaires that we know want to call the population. So I don't see anything wrong with just doing what they say for right now and playing it safe. Okay. And let's just just see what happens. Um, and again, as time goes on, you know, I think that it'll be clear to me when that decision needs to be made of what we're going to do. But you're there in first Peter chapter two, look at verse number 13 and says, submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake, whether it be to the King as Supreme or to the governors as unto them that are sent by him for the punishment of evil doers. Um, and for the praise of them that do well, but it says, submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake. One thing that will help you get through this time of plandemic is under standing that, that when you submit yourself to your boss, when you submit yourself to the ordinances of man, when they don't violate God's word, you know, just falling back on this verse here and understanding that you're doing these things to please Christ. I mean, that's really going to help you out. You're, you can rest at peace. You can let your head down, uh, to sleep at night and just sleep deep and just realize, Hey, you know, you're serving Christ. You're not violating scripture at this time. Does that make sense? Submit yourself to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake, right? We talked about this last week that we shouldn't be a people that are, uh, men pleasers, right? We should do everything to please the Lord. So when you go to work and you're working hard and people like, Oh, you're just a suck up. No, I'm not really working for the boss. I'm working for my God, right? I'm trying to be a good ambassador. I'm trying to have a good conversation with the new man and not jeopardize my testimony and bring shame on my nation who really governs me, who really governs us, right? You go back to Romans chapter 13 and then we're going to go to Ezekiel chapter number eight. So point number one, just one more time. We're subject to the higher powers, but not exclusively the government. So yes, when the government does say, Hey, no more church, no more this, no more soul winning because of the six foot role, you know, or just hypothetically, just play it, just play along with you here. Let's just say that they put that out there. Are we going to listen to that? No. Look, by the time you read first Peter chapter two, hopefully you've read acts chapter five. Okay. Hopefully by the time you've read Roman chapter 13, you've read acts chapter five or you've read the whole book of acts, right? Did Peter, did Paul, did they slow down when the Sadducees and the Pharisees said, Hey, did we not command you to stop preaching in his name? No. What did they say? No, we're going to keep doing it anyways. And they got blessed for it. So of course, you know, we're a Bible believing church in every sense of the word. When they come out and say, you know, this is the final decree. No more for you guys. You guys are done. Well, we're going to say, no, we're not. It's just really that simple. Okay. You know, well, what about the plague? Okay. Well then I guess we'll just die trying, you know, that that's my philosophy at that moment in time. If they say, well, this thing's never going to end, you know, and it is clear that it's going to become their boogeyman. Well, guess what? Knock knock. Here I come, you know, cause we're going to, we're going to just continue on as we were. And I don't know what else to tell you. You know, some people may not like that, but that's, that's just the way I see it. Okay. So here's the second statement that I want to make this morning. Our government is out of control and desires to be your God. Look, I'm not denying that either. Okay. Our government is continuously seeking more and more control over the citizens and they do listen to me. They do want to be your God. You know, it should be a surprise to the Bible believing Christian, especially if you've read revelation. If you just read any of the Bible, we've gone to church any length of time. We know that the new world order is coming. We know that it's being set up right before our eyes, but are you going to dwell on that? Are you going to split hairs over every little single conspiracy theory that's out there and let that hamper your attitude. Let that cause you to belittle your brother, to belittle your sister and to just wreak havoc amongst the body of Christ. That's ridiculous. That's not what we're called to do. Look, let's understand the fact that our government is out of control and they want to be your God. Okay. I understand that, but does that mean that we're just going to resist them on every single little thing? That's not the best way to always make peace. Okay. Look down there at verse number 11, Romans chapter 13. Look at verse 11 and says this and that knowing the time that now it is high time to awake out of sleep for now is our salvation near than when we first believe. You know, you get somebody saved today, you know, tomorrow their salvation's near and when they first believe, what does that mean? You know, the day that you're going to get your new body, the day of redemption, you know, it's just one day closer. It's just a little bit closer. It's coming, right? That's the idea here. That is the point. And so we need to make sure that we are not a people that are asleep, right? But with that in mind, you have got to turn to Ezekiel chapter eight. You have got to have balance in your life because here's what I noticed. When people go too far one way with these conspiracies, they almost always slide out of church. You watch, I promise you, I promise you, I promise you, I promise you that's what happens. And here's the other thing. When people go too far the other way, while there's no such thing as a conspiracy, they slide out of church as well because they don't see the need, the urgency to go out and get people saved and to study their Bible. You know, they just think, Oh, there's just nothing going on, nothing wrong. They just got their heads buried in the sand, right? We need to consistently find balance as Christians. This is with every area of your life, you know, not just with this, but everything. Okay. So don't, don't just just focus on the bad stuff all the time. Oh, you know, Alex Jones said that, look, Alex Jones does not love the Lord Jesus Christ. I hate to break that to you. Okay. He does not have Christ's interest at the forefront of his mind, right? He is really not much different than the, the whatever famous news anchor that's out there today. What's that guy on CNN with a gray hair? That queer. What's his name? What's his name? Cooper. Yeah. That guy. There's not a whole lot of difference. Does he say stuff that's true? Yes, he, he does. I'm not discounting that, but when that becomes your main source of truth, look, you will live a life of panic. It is just the fact you've got to have balance. You have to read about, look, if you're listening to that stuff more than you're reading the Bible, you're, you're, you're setting yourself up for failure. You are setting yourself up for extreme failure. Now, does that mean what I just pointed to you about us waking out of sleep doesn't apply? No, we need to be awake, right? But we need to be awake to use this information to calm people down, right? Say, Hey, look, yes, the world as we know it is going to change. It will end someday. You better get saved, right? You know, there's a judgment seat coming, right? Let's try to heap up more silver and gold than wood, hay and stubble. You see that's if you don't have that balance, you will never, you will never get that gold and silver. You're always going to have more wood, hay and stubble. Okay. It's just a fact of life. So let's just talk about this for a minute. The second statement that I made here, our government is out of control and desires to be your God. There's nothing new under the sun, right? Even back in Ezekiel's day, God had to show him this by grabbing him by the head and saying, look Ezekiel, this is what's going on. So we're going to go through quite a few verses here. Look down at verse number one, it says this is Ezekiel chapter eight, verse one. It says, and it came to pass in the sixth year, in the sixth month and the fifth day of the month as I sat in mine house. And we're going to come back to that statement here in a minute. And the elders of Judah sat before me that the hand of the Lord God fell there upon me. Then I beheld and lo, a likeness of the appearance of fire from the appearance of his loins, even downward fire and from his loins, even upward as the appearance of brightness as the color of Amber. And he put forth the form of an hand and took me by a lock of mine head. And the spirit lifted me up between the earth and the heaven and brought me in the visions of God to Jerusalem, to the door, the inner gate that looketh toward the north, where was the seat of the image of jealousy, which provoked to jealousy. So here you have Ezekiel, right? And God's like trying to tell him, Hey, this is what's going on here. This is why you're in captivity. This is how bad it is. And you know, you know Ezekiel, maybe he's like, well, is it really this bad? You know, that's kind of human nature. Are things really as bad as they seem? And God says, get over here, right? He, he, he grabs him by the lock of his hair and then in the spirit, I believe he takes him to Jerusalem and he shows him. And what's the first thing that you notice that he sees here in verse number three, right? What does it say? It says any put forth the form of a hand. It took me by the lock of mine head and the spirit lifted me up between the earth and the heaven and brought me in the visions of God to Jerusalem, to the door, the inner gate that looketh toward the north. So what's the first thing he sees here? Where was the seat of the image of jealousy, which provoked the jealousy. Now, if you try to look this up with a scholar, say it's hilarious to read what these guys say, though they're arguing and fighting over whether it's this Syrian God or whether it's this statue or whether it's this or whether it's even literal, look, it's a bad thing. Okay. It's a bad thing. It's an image. I mean, it's an image which provoke it to jealousy. The Bible says our God is a jealous God, right? There's nothing wrong with being jealous, right? Things that belong to you. You should be jealous over those things, right? A husband should be wife over a husband should be jealous over his wife and vice versa. We understand that in God's showing him here, Hey, look at this image which provoke it to jealousy, right? But I like this phrase here where it says, where was the seat of the image? It kind of reminds me, you know, of the seat of Satan, which we read about in Revelation, you know, and is that what's going on here? I don't really know, but nonetheless, this thing here is provoking God to jealousy and keep in mind that during this timeframe here, you know, in Judah, which is what's left of the nation of Israel. Remember the, what's their government like? They have a, they're supposed to have a king and then they have priests and they basically rule the people. They rule the land. It's not government like we have it today. Where that's definitely not the case. We don't have religious leaders, at least we shouldn't have religious leaders ruling over us unless you're a Catholic or, you know, one of these other bozo religions that, you know, would let, let them Lord over you like that. And so at the time here, you know, this is the government, this is the state that the government's in, you know, is there supposed to be an image at this part of the temple here? No. I mean, that's ridiculous, right? So God's showing Ezekiel, Hey, look, look at what your leaders are doing. Look at how far gone they're doing or how far gone they are. Look at verse four, it says, and behold, the glory of the God of Israel was there. According to the vision that I saw on the plane, then said he unto me, son of man, lift up thine eyes. Now, uh, the way toward the S the North. So I lifted up my eyes and the way toward the North and beholden, uh, northward at the gate of the altar is this image of jealousy and the entry. So again, it brings him to this image here. This is a bad thing. This is something that's not going on. Look, we have an image of jealousy in this country and the government wants that to be them. This is why they fund Hollywood. This is why they work together with them. Why? To capture your heart, your soul in your mind, to pump their agenda into you, your subconscious so that when these things like this happen, you'll just basically go along with it. You will look to them to save you instead of the Lord Jesus Christ. Verse number five, it says, Oh, I'm sorry. Verse number six. He said, furthermore to me, son of man, see as thou what they do. Even the great abominations that the house of Israel committeth here that I should go far off from my sanctuary, but turn the yet again and now shall see greater abominations. So again, what's going on here? He's showing Ezekiel how bad the government is. Look, there's nothing north of the sun. Our government is the same way. We hear about these people doing spirit cooking like Hillary Clinton and that Podesta guy. We know about the Bohemian Grove and the Bilderberg meetings and all of this stuff. Look, that stuff's true, but here's what else I believe is true. It's probably a lot worse than what we know. You know, I'll just say this, you know, Bill Gates is, is, is a really big spokesperson right now. He's, he's ditched Microsoft and that whole computer thing because he's a philanthropist. He thinks he's going to solve the world's problems by vaccinating everybody. Um, I've seen pictures of him with that Epstein guy. I don't know what the deal is, but that guy has got connections everywhere. It seems like, you know, Jeffrey Epstein guy. And here's what I know that birds of a feather flock together. Uh, these are some pretty evil people, right? You know, there's a reason why the Bible says to charge them that are rich, to not be high minded and to not be lifted up with pride. These people like Bill Gates, isn't Bill Gates, a Jew or a self-claiming Jew or something like that. Look, he's not a Bible believer Christian. He's not going to go to God's word for this. I saw a clip of him. I don't know if I've already mentioned, I think I didn't mention this, but he's, you know, he's like, well, you know, we're not going to be able to open a country in the world back up again until everybody gets vaccinated, you know? So no more mass gatherings. Okay. Well, does that mean the rock concerts, the rap concerts and the public schools and the colleges and the daycares, right? I mean, daycares are filthy without a coronavirus. Okay. I don't know. I'm just saying here, but what, what, what business do we really have trusting in somebody like that? You know, you know, I've seen pictures of him with that guy and all I'm saying is it's probably worse than what we think, you know, it's probably worse because look at what God's doing here. He first starts off by showing his ego, Hey, look at this image that provokes a jealousy. This image is not supposed to be here. I don't like it. I never commanded this. You peep your people put this in here, right? And then he's like, look, I'm going to show you that it gets even worse. It gets even worse. You know, and one thing I'll just, I'll just kind of go off on a quick rabbit trail here. Whenever you start to see a idolatry in a nation, you know, what soon follows that queers sodomites, right? That's why Asa had to put down the idolatrous priest. That's why he had to get rid of the idols and the sodomites at the same time. You'll notice that in the Bible, it starts with idolatry, right? Isn't there a show called American idol, but look, idolatry was pretty big in this country before that. I mean, think about the Vatican, right? And the Catholic religion is full of idolatry. What's the by-product they're all pedophiles, all their priests, you know, you say, well, there's every single one of them. I don't know. I just rather be safe and sorry. I just might as well be, you know, in that situation, there's been so many of them. I've got no problem saying, yeah, you're guilty until proven innocent. So you can take that and eat it. Look at verse seven. It says, and he brought me to the door to the court. And when I look behold, a hole in the wall, then said unto me, son of man, dig now in the wall. And when I had digged in the wall, behold the door. And he said unto me, go in and behold the wicked abominations that they do here. Look, what are they doing here? They're doing these abominations in darkness, right? They're hiding from people. Look, our government does this stuff. They really do worship that stupid Moloch guy down in the, and, uh, was it Northern California at the Redwood Grove? You know, I've seen the video. They, the politicians, they don't even deny it. And you know, I've even showed this to people like, like in the past, you know, when I used to be really big into this, I would show them the statements that these politicians would make about going to the Bohemian Grove and about how fun it is and about busing in male prostitutes, just all the stuff. And they'd just be like, you know, and it just, it just, do you know what that taught me? That information is it's okay to understand that and no, but it doesn't, it doesn't do the kingdom of Christ anything. I never got anybody saved by using that stuff. I never lifted anybody up. I never exalted them. Now that doesn't mean I'm not interested because, you know, it is kind of fascinating. I like reading Ezekiel chapter eight. There's a ton of sermons in this chapter, a ton, a ton of information in this, in this whole book, what have you, you know, if you haven't listened to pastor madness Ezekiel series, you know, you should go do that. Um, but you know, it just goes to show you that these people are doing the same things that we hear our politicians do. And what's the by-product here? Bondage, right? The people that are doing these things are putting the nation of Judah into bondage. They're the reason for the captivity. All right, let's keep reading here. It says this here in verse 10, so I went in and saw and behold every form of creeping things and abominable beasts and all the idols of the house of Israel portrayed upon the wall roundabout. Now were these things supposed to be here? Absolutely not. Verse 11 and there stood before them 70 men of the ancients of the house of Israel. And in the midst of them stood Jazaniah, the son of Shaphan with every man, his sensor in his hand and a thick cloud of incense went up. Then said he unto me, son of man, hast thou seen what the ancients of the house of Israel do in the dark? Every man in the chambers of his imagery. For they say, the Lord see if it's not, the Lord hath forsaken the earth. And so God's showing us here the complacent attitude that these people have. Idolatry has taken over into their hearts and they have completely disregarded anything to do with God. And he's just saying, hey, look, they think that I don't see this. You know, doesn't the Bible talk about how men love darkness rather than light? Our politicians are dark. I get that. I understand that. I don't trust them one bit with anything. And I'm not going to change my mind on this. We really are better safe than sorry. Look, like I've told some of you, you know, this week that I, you know, I don't necessarily understand this whole virus, how it's transmitted and stuff, but who's to say they're not going around, you know, putting bacteria in the tailpipes of vehicles and trying to spread stuff around the city. Right. You know, you just don't know how do we know they're not up to something else and you got to blame that on the coronavirus. These are very, there's a lot of variables with this whole situation. Better safe than sorry. And again, to answer the question, how long will I play this game? Probably not too much longer. Okay. I do want to be a good ambassador. We're going to talk about that, but at some point in time, the mission has to continue on as it was. Okay. So verse number 12, it says this, then said unto me, son of man has now seen what the ancients of the house of Israel do in the dark, every man and the chambers of his imagery. For they say, the Lord seeth us not the Lord has forsaken the earth. Verse 13. He said also unto me, turn the yet again and now shall see greater abominations that they do. So again, if it wasn't bad enough that they had the image of jealousy and it wasn't bad enough that they have these incense, uh, you know, there's all this incense, just basically blowing smoke everywhere and they're worshiping these images. He says, Hey, it even gets worse than that. Verse 14. Then he brought me to the door of the gate of the Lord's house, which was toward the North and behold there sat women weeping for to moves. Um, verse 15 then said unto me, has thou seen this, Oh son of man, turn the yet again and now shall see. You see, it just keeps getting worse, right now. Are they supposed to be weeping for to moves? No, that was ridiculous. You know, you're supposed to be weeping for the things of God. Now I want to bring you back up to verse one. We're just going to stop reading right there. I just want to provide you with a solution to all this right now. Okay. And here's the solution could be found in verse number one. And the solution is to be content. The solution is to be content. Okay. If you know, understand the conspiracy, look, I'm not saying you shouldn't look at that stuff. You know, we need to find other avenues to get our information other than Fox news, CSN or CNN and MSNBC, because they're just full of lies. I mean, it's ridiculous. It's like watching the WWF. It really is. You know, I used to watch that as a kid, right? Macho man. Oh, I love that stuff. You know, my dad, it's fake. No, it's not as real. I didn't really believe it was completely fake until the first UFC came out. And I was like, okay, yeah, now this is real, but it's WWF. I'm not watching that anymore. Right. I'm going to only watch the UFC, but you know, that's how kids think. Right. And you know, it's, it, it's the same thing. You know, you got these Fox news people, you know, they take a position and then CNN takes positions like the Republicans and the Democrats, you know, and guess what, in 2020, they're all evil. I'll just tell you that they're all evil. I think the scope was saying that before the service, right? You basically have liberals and then hardcore commies, you know, the liberals are running as your conservative Republicans. Now they've basically tricked society, tricked the world into thinking that you have a choice when you don't just because the guy has an R in front of his name for Republican or whatever. It doesn't mean he's a God-fearing man. Okay. So real quick, look at verse number one, Ezekiel eight, one that says this. And as it came to pass in the sixth year and the sixth month and the fifth day of the month, as I sat in mine house and the elders of Judah sat before me that the hand of the Lord God there fell upon me. Notice it says that he sat in his house. He's like, I'm sitting in my house. I understand that they're in captivity, right? Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonians are in the process are taking over Judah. They're reigning over that. And what, what does these, what do we find Ezekiel doing? Well, he's like, okay, I'm in quarantine. I'm, you know, there's a lockdown and he's in his house. He's in this moment in his life, you know, he has found that it's just better to be content and comply because that's what God basically tells these people all throughout the book of Jeremiah, right? He said, Hey, don't listen to Zedekiah. Don't listen to Jehoiakim. These people are in it for themselves. They think that I'm not serious, but the Babylonians are going to come and I'm supporting them. Now think about that. God's supporting the Babylonians during this time and tells the children of Israel several times, if you don't leave and go into captivity, you're going to get, you're going to get killed. You're going to get buried here. Now turn to Hebrews chapter 13, Hebrews chapter number 13. So you say, what's the, the, the, the solution. You know, when you find yourself in a lockdown or you find yourself, you know, in, in some kind of a bondage, just a place that you don't want to be. And you need to learn to find contentment. Now, does that mean that we're going to get used to this and just, you know, play along forever? No. Right. But right now, I mean, what are we, we're not even completely two weeks into this thing yet in Idaho, right? We're not even two weeks into it yet. I think it's way too early to be like, you know what, let's all just get out the guns, man. We're, we're going to go down in a blaze of glory. I don't think so. That's, that's not, first of all, that's not our mission, you know, where that leave that to these bozos that want to, you know, preach anarchy, like Jeff Munson, who's ever heard of, it was like a Jeff Munson from the UFC, guy from Washington, real big anarchist. He used to fight in the UFC, but he's been caught numerous times over in Olympia, Washington at the Capitol, like spray painting and basically, you know, just vandalizing the Capitol, but look, that's stupid. What, what, what good does that do? You know, he winds up getting these tickets and going to jail and stuff like that. That's ridiculous. You know, but I'm telling you this because there's Christians out there, people that are saved or people that claim to be saved also, they want to come into churches and, and preach this anarchist type behavior. Well, anytime the government wants to hike up taxes, we need to just get, you know, go storm the Capitol. Uh, no, but I give to Caesar what Caesar's that's also found in this chapter as well. Okay. So we need to learn to be content though, because this is a solution. Uh, while you're turning to Hebrews 13, I'm just gonna review Philippians four 11, which says this, not that I speak in respect of want for I've learned and whatsoever state I am there with to be content. This is the hallmark of a good ambassador of a good Christian is when you can learn that no matter what state you find yourself in to be content, right? So winning is going to change at least probably for the next couple months, right? People are going to be a little hesitant to talk to us and we're going to have to come up with some different ways of doing business. But the question I have for you is, can you learn to be content with that? Can you learn to just embrace that and move forward so that we can still get the mission accomplished? Look at verse five, Hebrews chapter 13, look at verse five. It says, let your conversation be without covetousness and be content with such things as you have for he has said, I will never leave the nor forsake the, and I'm glad I'm saved. I'm glad I believe this verse and I'm glad that you believe this verse because one thing that I've noticed this week is it seems like every house I go into now, people are starting to wish they didn't wish for the lockdown, you know? And now people are starting to get, you know, a little stir crazy. They're starting to get a little agitated and I'm talking to people that are Christian, people that are liberals, you know, saying, now I'm starting to rethink this whole lockdown thing because I can't go to the store at eight o'clock at night. I can't go buy this. You know, I want to go, you do all these things, you know, I miss the club. I told you I was going to hear that. Guess what people like, you know, this drinking at home thing's not working out, man. We need to start having parties. I want my clubs. These people want to go back to the bar, you know, but what's the, what's the Christian supposed to say? Let your conversation be without covetousness and be content with such things as ye have. Right? God knows what you have need of. I talked to you about this not too long ago, right? He takes care of the birds. He takes cares, takes care of the flowers and stuff like that. You don't think he's going to take care of you. You're crazy, right? When you have that attitude into your mind, you will never be content. You will never be content. You're just basically, you're, you're putting yourself on a mental lockdown basically. Okay. It's not the way that we should be. Real quick, go back to Romans chapter 13. We're going to move on here. Romans chapter 13. So point number one was this. We are to be subject to the higher powers. That does not mean exclusively the government. The government should never supersede what the Bible says. And I understand the question that some people will ask, okay, well, what about this? How long ago? Look, I'm going to address that here in a minute. Number two is our government is out of control and desires to be your God. This is a fact, this is true. Uncle Sam wants to be your God, right? The devil is the get the lower case G God of this world. That is who they serve. They do things in secret. We know that there's nothing wrong with understanding that God wanted Ezekiel to understand that. But one thing you don't see Ezekiel do is continuously dwell on those things. As you read the rest of the chapter, he went on and preached, look, his wife died and he still went out and finished the mission and preached the word. Think about that, right? That is our role as Bible believing Christians to know the facts to awake out of sleep, like it says in Romans 13, but to continue on as an ambassador. Okay. So number three, what is the Christian's role in government? I'm just going to tell you right now, it is to be an ambassador for our nation. Our nation is the kingdom of heaven, despite what Peter Ruckman and Sam Gibb and Robert breaker and Jean Kim want to tell you. Okay. These people are losers. They are not members of the kingdom of heaven. Okay. We are here in the United States of America in 2020, not really as citizens, according to God, we are ambassadors. Our citizenship is in heaven. Our citizenship is in the Israel of God, which it also talks about in Romans chapter number eight, nine. All right. So what is our role as a Christian in government? And it is to be an ambassador. We're going to talk about being an ambassador here in a minute, but look at verse number four. It says this Romans 13, four, it says for he is the minister of God to thee for good. But if thou do that, which is evil be afraid for he beareth not the sword in vain for he is the minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that do with evil. Okay. Look, it's no secret God ordained government. Okay. These people that want to say that we should just turn and fight at every single thing that they do. That's not right. Look, them taking our taxes out of our income, our compensation for our work. That's theft. Yeah. Even Jesus agreed to that. That's theft. That's theft. But you know what? We should just give them to Caesar what Caesar's right. Why? Because we're ambassadors. We don't really see people have invested too much of their mind, too much of their time into just, just, just being an American man, a constitution. And I love the constitution. I want to keep that. Trust me as an ambassador. You want to keep that right? Because that's what gives us our freedoms to assemble and go soloing and do all the things that we do. Right. And so we do as ambassadors want to push for that, but when that's all that we care about, again, you're swinging that pendulum too far to the left or to the right, whichever side you feel that's on. And what is the result? The result is disaster for you. The result is your failed mission as an ambassador here, right? God has ordained government, get over it, just deal with it, right? We're not going to cave to every little thing that they are or something major that they decide to do, but we will play diplomatically because that's what an ambassador would do. Look at verse five, where for you must need to be subject, not only for wrath, but also for conscience sake. I always wonder how, when I hear some of these and not here, right. I've, you got to understand I've, I've been to other churches as well in this movement and you know, sometimes people come in and they have this idea. Well, you know, if you don't agree with me that we shouldn't pay tax and we got to do something about it, then I don't want anything to do with you, you know? And it's like, do you not have like a conscience? Like, you know, did you not read Matthew? Do you not understand to give unto Caesar with Caesars, you know? And so for conscience sake, you know, it's okay to just look, I can sleep peacefully at night knowing that at least, you know, we've complied this far, right? I mean, think about this. Let's say I've got my opinions and I do, but let's say that I'm wrong and somebody here gets a coronavirus. You know, the Akers family just had a premature baby, you know? We should be cautious of that either way, even if there was no coronavirus, right? What if somebody comes in here with strep throat and they take that home to the baby? You know, my dad's elderly, you know, he's like 76 years old. He's got Alzheimer's and dementia. Do you think I want to risk his health at all? No, right? That's ridiculous any time a year, right? But especially with this situation where we really don't know. Let's face it, we really don't know how bad it is. We don't know what they're really up to. I know what their goals are. We know they want to call the population. Are they going to do it this time? Better safe than sorry, okay? Just going to keep saying that because that is true. Verse six, for this cause, pay tribute also for they are God's ministers attending continually upon this very thing. Render therefore to all their dues, tribute to whom tribute is due, custom to whom custom, fear to whom fear, honor to whom honor. And again, you have to understand the context here. Turn to Philippians chapter two. If you have to understand the context here, write the higher powers. The government is not the highest power. Okay. And when you understand verse one, that there's higher powers as the government, but there's also God and his word, then you can put that chain of command into perspective. And these verses make sense. Okay. If we're supposed to call the governor governor, not supposed to call him homie, you know, you should give him that respect. He has earned that position. Now, did I call him chicken little the other day? Yes. Because, you know, he's, you know, obviously, you know, our politicians today are wicked, you know, even John the Baptist preached against him and, uh, you know, he's flip-flopping on, you know, this transgender thing and, um, you know, a lot of other things as well. And you know what they, they deserve to get rebuked from time to time as well. Right. But by and large, you know, we should be good ambassadors and be diplomatic and, you know, not try to fight them over every little single thing. All right. Philippians chapter 12 or chapter two, verse 12 says this wherefore, my beloved as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. So before we move on here, what this verse means is you're supposed to exercise your faith. One of the ways that you can do that is to go soul winning or to preach somebody the gospel, right? You are working out your salvation or exercising it, right? A person works out their biceps or their quads or their back by using weights, right? That's what gets the job done. Well, how do you work out your salvation? You work it out by reading your Bible, by memorizing things, by taking heed to God's word and going and using it, you know, teaching, preaching, things like that, right? He's not saying work out your own salvation, you know, cause here, you know, here's what people will say. Well, you're supposed to sit down and just ponder whether or not you've really repented of enough sins to be saved. You know, work out your own salvation, work out the fact, you know, you need to work it out in your own head if you're really saved, look, that's stupid. Do you believe the Lord Jesus Christ, if you've been saved and you're saved, you know, move on here and work it out with fear and trembling verse 13 for it is God, which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure. Remember after the Roman seven, after the inward man, I delight in the law. It says verse 14, do all things without murmurings and disputings that you may be blameless and harmless. The sons of God without rebuke in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation among whom you shine as lights in the world. This says so much. I mean, this is a sermon really all by itself that we may be blameless and harmless. We are not called to take up arms against uncle Sam. Now, if somebody's, you know, does that mean if they just come to your door with a gun and they're going to try to kill you because you won't have a vaccine, you're not going to defend yourself. No, that's ridiculous. I'm going to defend myself. Okay. We're not saying that just because we've complied with a quarantine for a week and a half. Doesn't make us lily livered. People that are just rolling over at everything that the government does. Okay. That's ridiculous. But what am I trying to show you here? I'm trying to show you the role of a Christian here. We are called to be ambassadors. Okay. And part of that here is being blameless and harmless. The sons of God without rebuke, right? We want to be ambassadors. We want to be the sons of God without rebuke, right? How, how do we get that way in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, we live in a crooked and perverse nation. The United States of America is a very crooked, a very perverse nation. Right. That's a fact. Look, didn't, didn't our, uh, even the local government here cover up for that, uh, Cardinal pedophile. Yeah. I can't remember all the names, but you know, just because the treasure valley is all conservative and this doesn't mean that it's not crooked and perverse because it surely is. Here's a reason why there's these Mormon tabernacles on every single corner. Okay. It is. We are in a crooked and perverse nation, but among whom you shine as lights in the world, we need to be a light. And I'll tell you one thing right now, storming the Capitol building with ARs over a lockdown. That's not being a light. That's being a criminal. Okay. Remember ambassadors. Look, you don't see the ambassador to France going to their Capitol with an AR being like, all right, listen up. I don't know. I hope that doesn't happen. Right. That's at least not supposed to be their mission. Now are America's ambassadors pushing this out of my agenda? Well, yeah, they are. Uh, because they're being good little boys or they're representing a crooked and perverse nation. Right. But we have a different mission here. Our ambassadorship, uh, is verse 15 right here. We are supposed to be blameless and harmless. We have a message to preach to people. We want to maintain a good relationship with the community so that we can get that message through to them. Verse 16, holding forth the word of life that I may rejoice in the day of Christ that I have not run in vain, neither labored in vain. Again, holding forth the word of life. That is your weapon. That is what you have. You're not supposed to drop your Bible and pick up the hour. The AR go storm the government. That's just not what we're called to do. Verse 17. Yay. And if I be offered upon the sacrifice and service of your faith, I joy and rejoice with you all verse 18, the same cause also do you joy and rejoice with me. So when you comply with this, what does it do? It brings you joy. You say, I want joy. I'm sad right now. I don't like what's going on. Here's your remedy. Be content. Understand your mission as a Christian, your ambassadorship. Learn how to be a good ambassador and you will have joy. Go back to Romans 13 and so real quickly. And what is an ambassador? An ambassador is a representative. Okay. An ambassador is the ranking government representative stationed in a foreign capital. The host country typically allows the ambassador control of a specific territory called an embassy whose territory staff and vehicles are generally afforded diplomatic immunity and the host country. And I took that from a Wikipedia and there's a lot of application with that definition to our ambassadorship. It says an ambassador is a ranking government representative station in a foreign capital. We are very high ranking people sent from our kingdom, right? We are Kings and priests. That's what the Bible says in the kingdom of heaven. The Lord Jesus Christ being our high priest says, Hey, you guys are a Royal priesthood. You are Kings. You are priests, right? Well, what does this say here in the definition says an ambassador is a ranking government representative station of foreign capital. The United States of America to the Bible believing Christian is a foreign capital. We need to tread carefully on how we do business with this foreign government that we are a part of. Okay. And then it goes on to say this. The host country typically allows an ambassador control of a specific territory called an embassy. Well, that would be like our church building, right? And don't we want to fight to keep this? Yeah, we, we sure do, right? This is our embassy here. This is where we group and we, we allow people to come in here for refuge and get them saved and, and nurture them up and build them up. And then hopefully one day, you know, they become great ambassadors as well. And then it says, whose territory staff vehicles are generally afforded diplomatic immunity in a host country. You know, it's kind of like the tax break the government gives some churches, right? You know, there's some, there's some benefits and stuff that are out there for churches. So, so, you know, this, this is why the Bible talks about so much of us, you know, being ambassadors, because when you really understand that and you relate that to an ambassador on earth, like an American ambassador, you know, a Japanese ambassador or something like that, it kind of puts it into perspective for you. Like, Oh, okay. I, I get it. You know, sometimes we just get so rooted down. American man. And you forget you're an ambassador. I'm an ambassador before I'm an American as a Bible believing Christian. And when you have that mindset, you're going to be less likely to be all freaked out and all stressed out about all this stuff. Right. And understand that this is a season and our job is to help facilitate this in our interests. Right. And like I said, ambassadors don't typically go around blowing people's heads off in foreign countries. Okay. They go there and they basically try to win the people over and they basically just do that diplomatically. All right, let's move on here. Romans 13, look at verse 12. It says the night is far spent. The day is at hand. Let us therefore cast off the works of darkness and let us put on the armor of light. Let us walk honestly, as in the day, not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envy. So again, you know, what is our role? So Paul just spent the first part of the chapter saying, Hey, God's ordained government. You live in this government. We saw what he said to the Philippians. Hey, you, you're a, you're a light that shines amongst a crooked and perverse nation. Right. And what are we reading here again? The night is far spent the days at hand. Let us therefore knowing that the time is short, let's cast off the works of darkness. The more you can do that, the better of an ambassador that you will become. Verse 14 puts you on the Lord Jesus Christ and make not provision for the flesh to fulfill the lusts there of go to second Corinthians chapter five, second Corinthians chapter five. So real quickly, what I'm going to do, I'm just going to give you some marks. This isn't an exhaustive list. I'm going to give you some marks of an ambassador. And then we're going to talk about real quickly the message of the ambassador and the motivation of an ambassador, right? This, I think it's important for us to let this sink in, especially at a time like this. So really quickly, the marks of an ambassador, I'd say the only requirement there is to be an ambassador is you gotta be saved. Okay. Second Corinthians five 17, look at this. It says, therefore, therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. Now, if you have a, a new King James, I think it is, or a modern version, it's going to say that you're becoming new, right? And that's not it. Once you get saved, you have the new man inside of you. It's not becoming a new man. You, you, you, he's there. Right. But notice what it says here, because this passage here is, is talking about how we are ambassadors for Christ. And we're going to read that verse here in a minute, but I just want you to see that the requirement is that you have to be saved. This is now there. Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. All things are passed away. Behold, all things are become new and all things are of God who has reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ and has given to us the ministry of reconciliation. Okay. He has given that ministry to us. We are to reconcile the world to Christ. We are to go out there and show them, Hey, you do not have to work any longer. You can rest and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and know you're saved and know you're going to heaven. It's a done deal. You're sealed forever. Verse 19 to wit that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them and have committed unto us the word of reconciliation. Now look at verse 20. Now then we are ambassadors for Christ. Now, before you got to verse 20, you had to read verse 17. So there is a requirement to be an ambassador and that is you have to be saved. So after that point, it's just a question of whether or not you understand that. Are you a good ambassador or a bad one? Are you a good representative or are you a bad representative? Now then we are ambassadors for Christ as though God did beseech you by us. We pray you in Christ did be reconciled to God for he has made him to be sin for us who knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. Okay. Now here's the second one. Go to first Peter chapter one, first Peter chapter one. So real quickly there, you already saw that if any man be in Christ, he's a new creature, right? Verse 20, we are the ambassadors. You have got to be saved to become an ambassador. Oh, somebody says, you know what? I go to church. I believe you got to turn from your sins to be saved and believe is that person an ambassador? No. So do we have any business yoking up with them and in this ambassador type mission? No, we don't. Right. We need to put them aside. We need to get rid of those people if they're not going to change. If that's their mission, if they want to be the ambassador for the kingdom of hell, let them, let them at it. Right. Just let them have it. Right. Weird as ambassadors, just because we're ambassadors, it doesn't mean we're going to be yoking up and be friends with everybody under the sun, no matter what they believe. No, we need to be good representatives. Those people are the workers of iniquity. Right. All right. Here's the next mark though, that I want to talk about here. This is like I said, this isn't a requirement. This is just a mark of being a good ambassador. So the ambassador stays in close contact with his home country. Think about the ambassador to Japan or the ambassador to China, the ambassador to, to Russia, right? When these ambassadors go over there to their embassies, do they not phone home once in a while? Of course they do. You know, they, they communicate to Washington DC and they talk about what their plans are and what's going on in the country where they're at. Right. So look at this here. First Peter chapter one, verse 17. It says, and if you call on the father who without respect of persons judge at the, according to every man's work, past the time of your sojourning here in fear, it says this for as much as you know that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, the silver and gold from your vein conversation received by the tradition of your fathers, but with the precious blood of Jesus Christ as of the, of a lamb without blemish, without spot. But look at verse 17 again, it says past the time of your sojourning here in fear. You were so journeying in the United States of America as an ambassador. And he says, you're supposed to sojourn here in fear. Well, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. If you don't fear the Lord, you're probably not going to communicate with him very well. Are you? So as an ambassador, we need to make sure that we stay in close contact with whom we fear, who sent us here, who's ordained our position here. That means Bible reading. That means meditating on the word of God. That means prayer, right? A good ambassador is going to read the Bible. A good ambassador is going to pray. A good ambassador is going to stay in close contact with the person that sent him here. Go to Ephesians chapter number six, Ephesians chapter number six. Here's the second thing that I want you to notice about an ambassador, a good ambassador. The ambassador is loyal and steadfast. I'm sure you've read reports about ambassadors who have defected to other nations and stuff like that. You know, are those good ambassadors? No, they usually get fired, right? Or get arrested and put in federal prison. Right? Now we don't want to be like that. We want to understand that an ambassador, right, for God should be loyal and steadfast. Look at Ephesians chapter six, verse 20, for which I am an ambassador in bonds that there in I may speak boldly as I ought to speak. So Paul is saying, Hey, look, I'm an ambassador. I'm in bonds, right? He's like, I've got these chains on here. I'm going to trials. You know, I've got these kangaroo courts popping up and these people accusing me of all the stuff I haven't done. I've ever done anything wrong. But what does he say? That I'm going to speak boldly as I ought to speak. Anyways, the mission goes on. So Paul was the best ambassador I think who's ever lived. And what can we learn from that? That the ambassador is loyal and steadfast. This situation that we're in right now is going to show us who is loyal to church, who is loyal to God and who is not. Not just in this church I'm saying, but across the board, across the body of Christ, you will see that in the next coming months. Now churches that are bigger, they're probably going to obviously see that. I think we've gotten rid of everybody that's not loyal. So we're not really having to worry about that right now, but we need to understand that we needed to develop some loyalty. We need to make sure that we're steadfast. We need to make sure that this situation doesn't take us away from our mission, from what God has called us to do. Okay. Let's see here. Go to Romans chapter 12, Romans chapter 12 real quick. And so here's the next thing. An ambassador must be diplomatic, right? Another term for an ambassador is a diplomat. What you say, what's that mean? What does diplomacy mean? Here's the definition. The profession, activity, or skill of managing international relations, typically by a country's representatives abroad. We need to be careful on how we handle our relationship with our community. Okay. And right now, no matter what your opinion is about the coronavirus, the people by and large are freaked out. So if we violate that, especially right now, and just start going ham and knocking on their doors and being like, you know, foot in the doorstep, which hopefully nobody in here does anyways. I think that person's gone, but what's that going to do? That's going to ruin our relationship with the community. This is why we might have to, well, we are going to have to get creative and do some other things. Okay. It's just the way it is. It's not caving to the government. It's being a good ambassador. Remember the sermon's about our role in government. Our role is to be a good ambassador and a good ambassador does all the things that I've talked about, but they do the best they can to maintain that relationship. Now I realize some of the things that preach have not made us popular in the community, but remember we are subject to the higher powers. And this book is over the Boise bench. This book is over the Treasure Valley. This book is over the cultural system that we have today. And if they want to look at us and hate us as ambassadors at that time, then so be it, because we're not going to compromise the message. I'm not talking about compromise here. I'm talking about a little give and take on stuff that's not that big of a deal right now. Okay. Just to err on the side of caution, Romans 12, look at verse 18. It says, if it be possible, as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men. Now, again, a little side note, don't let somebody just throw this verse on you and say, Oh, you're supposed to be peaceful with the pedophiles. And then, you know, the alphabets. No, you know, those people are an anomaly by themselves. They're not supposed to be alive. Leviticus 20, 13. Okay. That's how you answer that. Turn to first Thessalonians chapter five, first Thessalonians chapter five. So if it be possible, as much as life in you, live peaceably with all men as ambassadors, as being diplomats, we should strive. And if possible to make peace with men, right. And not going door to door soul winning right now is not caving to the government. It's fulfilling Romans 12, 18. It's, it's our attempt at our ambassadorship to maintain a diplomatic relationship with our foreign nation or foreign capital that we live in. You're there in first Thessalonians five. Uh, before I have you read that Proverbs 25, 15 says, um, by long forbearing is a Prince persuaded and a soft tongue breaketh the bone. So Proverbs is telling us there that by long forbearing a Prince is persuaded. So sometimes when we just play the game and we're just long suffering with our host country, you know, you never know what that could do. That could turn into, you know, a good thing. It could persuade the community, you know? So if we go out to the, when we go out to the parks, we do some of the things that we're brainstorming on and talking about, you know what I think they'll see, Oh, they're trying, they're trying, they're not being jerks and saying, Oh, you're not going to catch this. You suck. Get out here and get saved. Right. Though sometimes we want to say that, right? Because we have a desire to see people save and I appreciate that and we're going to keep with that. But in this short time, in the beginning of this thing, let's just approach this like an ambassador would in any nation and be diplomatic. Uh, first Thessalonians chapter five, look at verse 14. Now we exhort you brethren, warm them that are unruly comfort the feeble-minded support the weak, be patient toward all men. Let's make sure before we go crazy here that we fulfill this mission here, right? We exhort the brethren and we warn them that are unruly. So the people that are like, you know, we got to do something, we got to physically fight these people. No, that's being unruly. We need to warn those people. Hey, that's not the right course of action here. We need to be ambassadors. Um, go to Ephesians chapter four, last one here, last mark that I want to bring up here of an ambassador is an ambassador brings health. An ambassador brings health. You say, what in the world are you talking about? Proverbs 13, 17, a wicked messenger falleth into mischief, but a faithful ambassador is health. A faithful ambassador is health. When we are faithful, we apply these things. We go out to the community, we get people say, man, that's some, that's some health. That's some spiritual health. And you know what being a Bible believing born again, Christian, you know what that is good for you physically, because when you apply these things, you eliminate so much stress in your life. That's good for your heart. That's good for your brain. That's good for your body. All right, let's move on here. So we talked about the marks of an ambassador. Let's talk about the message of the ambassador real quickly. Obviously is to obey the gospel, the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. That is the message that we bring forth as ambassadors. Ephesians four 22 says this though, it says that you put off concerning the former conversation, the old man, which is corrupt. According to the deceitful us go to James three real quick and James chapter three. So he says, Hey, not only are we out here preaching the gospel, right? But the message of an ambassador is really twofold. It's to preach the gospel, but it's also to make sure that our conversation is with the new man over the old man. That's the message we need to make sure that we're messaging with our new man every single day. And I'm look, I'm not lifestyle Christianity, but there is some value in that as an ambassador. Nobody likes a dirty ambassador. Nobody likes the ambassador that just shows up and is just out of control, right? A good ambassador is going to maintain that relationship with his host country and is going to be a good representative on his best behavior. And that's what we're reading here that you put off concerning the former conversation, the old man, every day that you wake up, you have a conversation with the old man. You know, when somebody comes off at me and starts yelling at me, you know, I have a strong temptation to respond on the old man who we all do. We're human, right? We have, we have the flesh, but real quick, James three, look at verse 13. It says, who is a wise man and in dude with knowledge among you, let him show out of a good conversation, his works with meekness of wisdom. There, there you go again, the word conversation, you know, isn't just talking about an exchange between two people or a change of words between two people. It's a conversation that you have between your two natures, the old and the new man. And you want to make sure that the bulk is much as live within you as much as possible that your conversation is with that new man, because that's what makes an effective ambassador, right? You know, it's true. We've got 70 people saved so far as of right now. We, we, I believe we're going to break the record of last year. You know why? Because we have a church with good ambassadors. You guys have decided, you know what? We're going to listen to the word of God. We're going to read it for ourselves. And we're going to have our conversation with the new man. And I think God looks down and he saw that and said, now it's go time. Now I'm going to open up all these doors. You need to get these people saved. And you know what? We got to just find a way to do it right now, but we have to do it as good ambassadors. Okay. That is the key here. Real quick, just listen to this. First Peter one 15 says this, but as he, which hath called you as holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation, right? That means you talking amongst yourselves. And that means you talking with your own self. Okay. Choosing that new man's opinion over the old man. Okay. Now real quickly, point number two about the ambassador is this. The message of an ambassador was what it's twofold. It's to preach the gospel, but it's also to have your conversation honest among yourselves and other people. Okay. Because when people see that, they say, this is not a hypocritical type person. You know, this is somebody who's obviously serious means what he's preaching. What does the new evangelical do like Todd white? They create organizations called lifestyle Christianity, and they just focus on that. And then they grow their hair out down to their backsides and think that that's biblical. Oh, Jesus told me to grow dreads, man. That's what Todd white said. Okay. That's a joke. That's not lifestyle. Christianity lifestyle. Christianity is believing what is written and applying it. Okay. Real quick. We're almost done. Almost done. Number three here. I just want to show you the motivation of an ambassador because we all look, it's not every, every Saturday I wake up and I'm like, yes, that's soul winning. Now, a lot of them, there are right. Especially when things are going good, but sometimes man, it's like, man, I got all this stuff to do is like, wow, what's going on here, right? It can be a struggle as an ambassador. You need to realize that and you need to make sure that you can tap into your source of motivation here. Turn to Jude. We're going to look at verse 21. Look at Jude, turn to Jude chapter 35. Actually, I'm just kidding. If you fell for that, you're getting kicked out. No, I'm just teasing. All right. So what's the motivation of an ambassador? Well, for me, you know what it is? It's knowing about the judgment seat of Christ. Not that I'm going to have my sins put on blast. Look, they're further, there's gone as far as the East is from the West, right? But just knowing there's a thing called the judgment seat of Christ and my wood, hay and stubble is going to get burned up before me. That drives me to want to do more. I want gold and silver. That's what I want. And so I've geared my life in a way to where I want to focus in where I do focus largely on the eternal, not the temporal. Right. And what does that do? That just makes your ambassadorship more and more effective. It's going to make you a stronger ambassador. It's going to motivate you every day of your life. Jude, look at verse 21 and says this, keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life. And some have compassion making a difference. So Jude says, Hey, there's some that have compassion. We need to have compassion for the lost. We need to sometimes maybe sit down and meditate on Mark chapter nine, where the worm dieth not, you know, where the flames not quench and just look at people and say, Hey, if I don't go out and tell these people about the flame, that's not going to be quenched and the worms, guess what? They're going to go to hell and develop some compassion, making a difference. Verse 23 and others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire, hating even the garment spotted by the flesh. What's your motivation as an ambassador? Hopefully it's the judgment seat of Christ. Hopefully it's this. Hopefully it's your, your communication, right? With home base, with the Lord God, with the word of God, with Jesus Christ. Because when you do that and you're reading every single day and you're studying this book every single day, you know what happens? That communication is strong. And you want to proclaim that as an ambassador in this foreign nation that we live in, right? But he gives you two types of people here. You know, some that just have compassion and they make a difference, right? If you have compassion, if you can develop that, you will make a difference out there. It's, it's a promise and others say with fear, you know, some people are like running across the streets like, Hey, hold on, man, where are you going? Are you 100% sure if that day you get to heaven, you know, and, and those are people that, that save with fear. They're afraid of seeing people die and go to hell, right? That's, that's the state I think we need to be in, especially right now, because there's a great temptation out to be like, Oh, soul winnings off, man. I'm gonna kick my feet up and just take it easy. Well, who's to say you're going to snap out of that when this thing's over, right? All right. Real quick, Acts chapter five, Acts chapter five. So to, to end this thing off, you know, I said that the title of the sermon is this, are we caving to the government right now? Week number two or whatever it is. I think it's week number two of this lockdown thing. Are we caving to the government? No, we are fulfilling our role as an ambassador. That's the way I'm looking at this thing. We're erring on the side of caution because we don't know I've got my opinions and they're subject to change. You have your opinions and they're subject to change. Why? Because facts need to outweigh any opinion that you have, right? There's a lot of people out there that have an opinion that says, you know, you gotta believe in works and Christ to be saved. Well, when you show them the fact that Bible says something different, they need to change that opinion and believe in the facts, right? That's what this thing's about. But you know, being an effective ambassador for Christ is often going to lead to accusations like you're caving in to the government or something like that. Now, if we're going to play this boogeyman game for like the next year or something like that, well then no. Okay. I'm just going to, you know, life's going to have to go on. We can't live like this forever till the Antichrist comes in. We got it. We got to continue on with the mission. All I'm saying is that now our tactics have to change to reflect our position as an ambassador and we need to be diplomatic. We need to play the game. That's what an ambassador would do. A U S ambassador is not going to go straight over to Saudi Arabia and say, Hey, take them head garbs off right now, right? They're trying to slowly work in their plan. You get what I'm saying? But what do we do? Right? We're trying to work in God's plan and get people saved and be at good, that good representative. Okay. And the accusations will come and we're just gonna let them come because look, we come to church, you know, we're, we're live streaming right now, but you know what? That doesn't mean we can't, you know, still go out and make this thing work. Okay. Real quickly. Uh, acts five, look at verse 27. It says this, when they had brought them, they set them before the council and the high priest asked them saying, did not we straightly command you that you should not teach in this name and behold, you have fulfilled, I'm sorry, you have filled Jerusalem with your doctrine and intend to bring this man's blood upon us. Now look at verse 29. Then Peter and the other apostles answered and said, we ought to obey God rather than men. This is not the situation that we're in right now. It seems like it sometimes, you know, when I listened to some of these politicians or these philanthropists, right? It does seem like that, but right now we are just in a period of assessment. Okay. We're trying to figure out which way is this thing going to go? And then once we have that concrete answer, we'll make a decision on what we're going to do. Okay. But we're not rolling over for anybody. We're being diplomatic right now, right? As ambassadors, we're called to be ambassadors, man. That's just the way it is, right? The governor, governor little has to come out and say, no more soul winning. And you know, and no more, no more of this forever. All right. Commanded you not to teach and preach in his name, right? You saw what, what Peter did. Paul did the same thing. We ought to obey God rather than men. Okay. And we will always do that, but right now let's work on being a good ambassador because the community is freaking out. They don't have Christ. We're trying to get them Christ. And what we, the way we're going to do that is by realizing our role in this government. We're foreigners here. We are foreigners here. We are ambassadors and we need to make sure that we push our ambassador message. Okay. That's the role. We're diplomatic. That's what we're doing. We're not caving into any money. We're just trying to try this thing out diplomatically and we'll see what happens. Okay. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Thank you so much, Lord. Once again, for the many infallible truths that are in your word. I just pray you'd bless us all here this morning, Lord, and bring us back safely tonight in Jesus' name. I pray. Amen.